Eric Collins discussed aquatic samples that were gathered near artic ice and the micro biome that was within it. He discussed the origins of the water and the chemicals in the artic ocean, what land masses they melted from, what current brought the water there and took water away. Collings discussed the affect that melted sea ice has a chemical finerprint on the water it melts into, and how that relates to the micro biome in the artic. He also examined the ways that artic climate change could cause microbial extinctions.
He mentioned that the climate change in artic oceans could cause microbial extinctions that couldn’t/wouldn’t happen in other biomes. This made me think about a quote we heard in lecture, about how microbes are everywhere the environment selects. I think that this quote doesn’t mean that every species will be present everywhere just that if it could be there it would be. Back to the melting artic, any microbe that requires a saprophytic environment, and or the specific chemical composition of water associated with melted sea ice will loose its niche if the ice melted. These microbes have no where to go, they are already at an extreme environment, that simply wont exist in that future. Microbes in other environments will be able to migrate across latitudes and altitudes, but not these microbes, they wont have anywhere to be. It’s a bit sad to think about.
Morgen Southwood